BETTERING • FREE TRANSLATOR.ORG • Definition of Bettering

Add this Dictionary
to your website!
See more options...

/bˈɛtərɪŋ/ Listen

adjective

bettering adj. Changing for the better; antonym of worsening. (Narrower terms: ameliorating(prenominal), ameliorative, amelioratory, meliorative)

verb

Better v. t. (past & past part. bettered; pres. part. bettering)

To improve or ameliorate; to increase the good qualities of. "Love betters what is best." "He thought to better his circumstances."

To improve the condition of, morally, physically, financially, socially, or otherwise. "The constant effort of every man to better himself."

To surpass in excellence; to exceed; to excel. "The works of nature do always aim at that which can not be bettered."

To give advantage to; to support; to advance the interest of. (Obs.) "Weapons more violent, when next we meet, May serve to better us and worse our foes."

Synonyms: To improve; meliorate; ameliorate; mend; amend; correct; emend; reform; advance; promote.

Better v. i. To become better; to improve.

See images of 'Bettering'

Etymology of 'Bettering'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

Share |

"Bettering" Quotes from Famous Books

... captain. "But still, Mr Johnson, I think that you should take the lady's opinion on the subject. I suspect that when she knows the true state of the case, she would far rather you remained at home than have to go knocking about the salt ocean, without the prospect of bettering yourself." ...

— Marmaduke Merry - A Tale of Naval Adventures in Bygone Days • William H. G. Kingston

... who, bettering not with time, Corrupts the strength of heaven-descended Will, And ever weaker grows thro' acted crime, Or seeming-genial venial fault, Recurring and suggesting still! He seems as one whose footsteps halt, Toiling in immeasurable sand, And o'er ...

— It Can Be Done - Poems of Inspiration • Joseph Morris

... largely transmissible. Mind grows self-perpetuating only by its expression in matter. What makes progress possible is that rational action may leave traces in nature, such that nature in consequence furnishes a better basis for the Life of Reason; in other words progress is art bettering the conditions of existence. Until art arises, all achievement is internal to the brain, dies with the individual, and even in him spends itself without recovery, like music heard in a dream. Art, in establishing ...

— The Life of Reason • George Santayana

... beseeching Him to send you a good issue out of all these troubles, & from henceforth to work a reformation in all that is amiss, & a resolute perseverance, proceeding, & growth, in all that is good, & that for His glory, the bettering of yourself, this Church & Commonwealth; whose faithful servant whilest you remain, I am a faithful ...

— The Curious Case of Lady Purbeck - A Scandal of the XVIIth Century • Thomas Longueville

... knowledge, work for their employers as they would for themselves, cease to use the power of the unions unjustly, cultivate amicable relations with everybody, and try in all possible ways to make true men of themselves? If the men had worked along this line they would have found they were bettering themselves in every way faster than they ...

— Daybreak: A Romance of an Old World • James Cowan

More quotes...